Staff report
The legislators who represent Rowan County in Congress split along party lines on the $787 billion stimulus package passed Friday.
And the final version of the legislation includes a “buy American” amendment inserted by a congressman who represents Cabarrus County.
U.S. Rep. Mel Watt and Sen. Kay Hagan, both Democrats, voted in favor the legislation in their respective chambers.
Republicans U.S. Rep. Howard Coble and Sen. Richard Burr voted against it.
Interviewed by telephone after his return to North Carolina Friday evening, Watt said the legislation is necessary.
“I obviously think we have to do something to address the severe economic crisis that we’re in and doing nothing was certainly not an option,” he said. “I’m just hopeful that this will be sufficient to at least slow down, if not stop, the downturn and start adding some jobs back so we can try to right a ship that’s obviously headed in the wrong direction at this point.”
Watt said he is analyzing the impact of the stimulus package on North Carolina, within his district and on the cities within the district. He plans to speak in more detail about the legislation next week, he said, “when we get details of what we’re talking about rather than just talking in generalities.”
Watt said he plans a series of town hall meetings throughout the district to discuss the local impact of the legislation, including one Thursday night at Rufty-Holmes Senior Center on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. The time hasn’t been set, he said.
In a press release issued by his office Friday afternoon, Coble said even though the measure approved Friday has a smaller price tag than the original House version, spending levels remain “obscenely excessive” in the legislation.
“This so-called stimulus bill won’t jump-start our economy because most of this new spending will be in later years and the tax cuts are not broad enough to lift us out of this recession,” Coble said. “While the conference report might be slightly less expensive than the House version, it still contains too much big government spending while not providing enough tax relief. We are burdening future generations with a massive debt.”
Hagan released a statement saying the act will save or create 105,000 jobs in North Carolina while making large investments in infrastructure and helping to move the state toward a new, green economy “in order to fuel future economic growth and prosperity.”
“North Carolinians did not elect me to go to the U.S. Senate and sit idly by while millions of Americans are struggling to find a job and put food on the table for their families,” said Hagan, who defeated Salisbury native Elizabeth Dole in November to claim on the state’s two Senate seats. “Inaction is simply not an option when the number of unemployed North Carolinians is close to 397,000 and our economic outlook could be described as bleak at best.”
Hagan joined fellow Democrat U.S. Rep. Larry Kissell ó whose 8th Congressional District includes Cabarrus County ó in touting the fact that the final legislation includes an amendment by Kissell to require the Department of Homeland Security to buy U.S.-made uniforms and other textile products. It is an expansion of the Berry Amendment, which requires the same of the Department of Defense.
“It is estimated upwards of 20,000 people will have jobs due to this measure,” Kissell said in a press release. “This amendment is exactly what the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is all about ó using American ingenuity to fuel our economic recovery. There is nothing more American than the brave men and women who protect us every day serving at Department of Homeland Security wearing uniforms made by hard-working Americans.”
Burr released a statement saying he voted against the stimulus bill because it “does not meet the economic challenges we are facing. In typical Washington fashion, we have thrown together a hastily-written bill with little public input, little debate, and very little thought about the long-term consequences of what we are passing. By spending nearly a trillion dollars on projects that expand the government but provide little to no stimulus, we are ensuring a massive debt for our grandchildren,” he said.